Full Reopening of The Purbeck School on 8th March 2021
Full opening of the Purbeck School pdf
Dear Parent/Carer,
As I am sure you are aware, we have had the welcome announcement that the school can fully reopen to all students from Monday March 8th.
Part of the Government reopening strategy requires the school to test students as they return using the Lateral Flow Test kits. The current aim is to test all students three times in school between the period of the 8th – 26th March, after which testing kits will be sent home for home testing. Staff have received the relevant training and we have been regularly testing those students already in school, as well as teachers since the beginning of term.
As you might imagine testing over 1000 students is quite a logistical commitment for the school. We are not able to administer that number of tests in a single day (each test takes around 5/10 minutes due to the administration involved). Therefore, to ensure that testing can take place of a student on the day they return to school, we will need to stagger the opening of school from the 8th March.
We have taken the decision to bring year groups in line with the Department for Education guidance.
Therefore, the programme for returning will be as follows:
Monday 8th March Year 11 and Year 13 will return to school
Tuesday 9th March Year 10 and Year 12 will return to school
Wednesday 10th March Year 7 will return to school
Thursday 11th March Year 8 will return to school
Friday 12th March Year 9 will return to school
We are unable to undertake any test without the parental/carer consent form (sixth form students can self-consent but will still need to complete the consent form).
TPS Consent Form pdf.
TPS Consent Form Docx.
If you require a paper copy of the consent form then please contact office@purbeck.dorset.sch.uk
Please can you ensure that the consent form is returned to school by Wednesday March 3rd.
Students who are already regularly attending school will be able to stay in school during the week beginning the 8th March and remote learning will continue to be delivered to year groups not back in school. Once a year group returns to school the remote learning will stop.
This testing programme does not replace the current testing policy for those with symptoms. Anyone with symptoms (even if they recently had a negative test result), should still self-isolate immediately according to government guidelines. Those with symptoms are expected to order a test online or visit a test site to take a lab-based PCR test to check if they have the virus.
We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again. I will write again early next week reminding everyone of the protocols to ensure that we remain as Covid secure as we can.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Darley
Headteacher